Without subsidy, our theatres will run out of hits | Culture | The Observer

Without subsidy, our theatres will run out of hits | Culture | The Observer:

For me, the case is very simple indeed. I work in a subsidised theatre because subsidy enables me to escape the strictures of the marketplace in three enormously valuable ways.

First, it allows me to invest in truly unpredictable work. In my experience the most valuable encounters we have with works of art occur when we and the artist meet in a state of mutual uncertainty.

In 1978 Portland saw the benefits of subsidized theater in an incredible season produced by Peter Fornara. See my essay Risk In Rep. Nothing here has come close to this season, before or since, in terms of entertaining, challenging theater over an entire season. Indeed, my own career could not have developed as it did without the personal subsidies of grant support through the 1980s.